Day work in a
German agency while moonlighting for Vietnam's Communist Party? Such is the
alleged double-life of the suspended worker who may have helped Vietnamese
spies abduct businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin.

Ho N. T., who
has been suspended for
the duration of the investigation and could face legal action, allegedly provided
"tips" to the seven-man Vietnamese intelligence squad who traveled to
Berlin in July to detain and kidnap Thanh, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

In a statement
mailed to DW, the BAMF said that Ho N. T. had been "immediately called to
a personnel meeting, and released from his duties" when the accusations
came to light in the media. But it also added that "according to
current information, there is no direct connection between the employee and the
suspected kidnapping."

The office was
careful to underline that during his 26-year career at the office, Ho had not
been responsible for assessing Vietnamese asylum claims, and that all its
employees are bound by duties of loyalty and neutrality.

A stooge of Vietnam's Communist Party?

But the BAMF
also said that it had not been aware of Ho's extracurricular activities. After
the abduction was first reported in early August, German media discovered that
Ho N. T. had been writing for Vietnam's ruling Communist Party (CPV) and was
even officially lauded two years ago for "special services to foreign
propaganda" for an article in the party newspaper about the "crisis
in western democracy."

In October last
year, before it was known that Thanh was even in Germany, Ho N. T. speculated
on his Facebook page whether the "criminal" Thanh would be
extradited if found in Germany.

Vietnamese
intelligence reportedly hired a seven-seater vehicle in Prague and stayed in a
hotel in western Berlin before abducting Thanh on July 23 in the
Tiergarten district of the German capital city. His whereabouts were
unknown until July 31, when Vietnamese media, citing the country's Ministry of
Public Security, reported that Thanh had voluntarily given himself up in Hanoi
to criminal investigators who had been searching for him since April.

The German
government, who believe that officials from the Vietnamese Embassy were
involved, were outraged by what would be a breach of protocol. The German
Foreign Ministry demanded Thanh's release and return to Germany so
that a proper extradition application could be assessed. The ministry also confirmed
that Vietnam had called on Germany to extradite Thanh during the G20 summit in
Hamburg. For its part, the Vietnamese government denies that any kidnapping
took place.

Vietnamese politics is currently caught in a power
struggle between hardline communists and reformers

The 51-year-old
Thanh is wanted for corruption and "property misappropriation" in
Vietnam, but he is also seen as a pro-Western reformer. He spent a few years in
Germany in the early 1990s, and he was a political functionary back in
Vietnam for many years before being stripped of all his posts amid corruption
accusations in September 2016.

In a communist
country where business and politics are closely integrated, Thanh was chairman
of the board of the state's PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation
(PVC) and held a number of leading positions in state companies while
simultaneously holding a seat in parliament.

But
Thanh now appears to be the victim of a power struggle within the
CPV. Conservative communists and pragmatic capitalist reformers have been vying
for political domination for some time, with the conservatives currently
enjoying the upper hand. Much like in China, anti-corruption campaigns have
become a preferred method for weeding out political opponents. Dozens of
high-ranking Vietnamese government and party officials have been arrested in
the past few months - with some sentenced to death.